The Silver Emperor
by Quryix
Summary: What if Vali went to Kuoh Academy and had a peerage of his own? This is that story. Slight AU as Vali will affect more than in the true canon. Vali's development of power is slightly delayed so slightly weaker Vali. OCs when needed. Also slightly OOC Vali... not going to get into the sciency reasons why.
1. Chapter 1

"Fuck him, I don't need them anyway. What's good about a home anyway. It's just a way to confine my creativity and growth as a human." I mumbled to myself as I walked down the street.

"Vali, stop moping." I heard a strong voice from nowhere.

"What! Who are you? No, show yourself! Ugh, you know what I mean!" I started shouting frantically.

A man in black robes with ten crow-like wings descended in front of me. "Yo." He started talking to me with a carefree attitude. "Name's Azazel. Guess you aren't doing so well?"

"Well I just got kicked out of my house. Now I'm homeless and to top it all off, I'm hallucinating. I'm going fucking crazy. So no, I'm not doing fucking well!" I started shouting at my hallucination. Good thing no one is around this late at night, or else I'm probably going to get the cops called on me.

"You aren't crazy. I'm totally real. I'm Azazel, the governor-general of the fallen angels. I've taken an interest in you, so why don't you come live with me. It would be chill, free food, a place to sleep, I can also explain what's going on. I know your father very well. Well technically I've never met your father, but I've been watching you guys and I knew your great-grandfather and your grandfather personally. So whaddaya say?"

"No."

"Aww, come on. It will be fun."

"You're being rather creepy. I completely and utterly don't trust you. Nope, I'm out. What is going on, I'm yelling at my hallucination."

"Come on, I can prove it."

"Prove what! That you're real! No, I know you aren't! I'm just tired, so fuck off. Let me find a cozy bush to go and sleep in, if you're here in the morning, I'm crazy. So. FUCK! OFF!" I yelled.

Suddenly with a flash of light; images began to play through my mind, I saw my hallucination fighting with someone who looked like the portrait of my great-grandfather. Azazel looked exactly the same, where my grandfather had ten bat-like wings behind him. They were fighting around a pit of lava, surrounded by red stones. When I regained my senses, my hallucination, Azazel, had a smug grin on his face.

"Believe me now?"

"Not really, but I'm willing to listen. After I sleep."

"Do you trust me enough now to sleep at my place?"

"Not really, but do I have a choice?"

"No. Not really."

There was a big flash of light and just like that my new life began. No longer would I be Vali Lucifer, descendant of the original Lucifer. But Vali Lucifer, An owner of a king piece.

* * *

"Ok, later Azazel." I've been living with Azazel for a couple of years now, seeing how at this point I'm in my third year at Kuoh Academy.

Two years ago, the new satans claimed me loyal enough to be considered a high-class devil (due to my lineage) but also worthy of getting the evil pieces that come with that, and my inheritance from my great-grandfather.

I have debated getting my own place, but work has been rather slow for a devil in Kuoh, so I haven't really felt like it would be a good investment as I'd be extremely broke if I got a place, here in Kuoh. My devil money comes in slowly as I did get part of the Lucifer property back, but with paying workers and people not wanting to buy stuff from some no name devil (as I have to use a fake name to not undermine Sirzechs' authority), money is hard to come by.

"See ya later, Vali."Hence, I continue to live here with Azazel. Sometimes, he acts as an authority figure for me, others as my roommate. Still, I owe him my gratitude for taking me in, even after my tirade all those years ago.

* * *

I sat down in my seat, at the back of my homeroom. First as usual. Next into the room was Sona also as per usual. When I transferred in, she didn't particularly care that much. Considering me just like any other devil. Unlike Rias, who originally saw me as a threat to devil society, yet she was unable to do anything about me transferring in; as her father and brother were the ones to transfer me here. Speak of the devil princess, she walked in fourth as usual behind some unknown human kid. Rias sat down in her seat, next to Sona. In front of me but next to Sona. Rias and I have bonded a little since then, but she still prefers to give me the cold shoulder.

Seventh into the room was the only human I've reincarnated. Kiyome Abe, the captain of the tennis team. She took all eight of my pawns. I've tried to do the math how she could be need all eight pawns, and all I could come up with his maybe her tamed beasts may gain promotion along with her, so it calculates in her having a wide array of monsters she has tamed; whatever it is, it was well worth it. She walked over to us, sitting in her seat next to me.

I watched as people began to enter to room. Each of them following a simple pattern. Look over at me, quickly hide their eyes, then scurry to their seat. According to rumors Kiyome had heard, I have gotten a reputation for being "the handsome bad boy" of the school. My favorite comparison I've heard is that I'm Kiba's evil counterpart. Another great one was that I blackmailed the girls who nearly constantly surrounded me and that I had nudes of each on my phone. Not that I really care; friends aren't really my style. Sona and Rias are mere acquaintances. And Kiyome is more of just an ally to me.

I may be being too picky though. I do have the smallest peerage of the Kuoh devils. Whatever with my sacred gear, divine dividing, and Kiyome's beasts; we can complete any task the peaceful town of Kuoh has for us.

Finally class started. It was a boring class as usual. The girls surrounding me were frantically writing notes, trying to keep up with the young female teacher's breakneck delivery of the lesson. It was a simple concept that Azazel already taught me, so I kind of just gazed lifelessly at her boring blackboard.

I must have fell asleep, as the next thing I knew, school was over and Kiyome was shaking my arm.

"Vali, get up. School is over."

"What happened? Better question, can I see your notes?" I might as well see if I don't know any of it.

"You fell asleep. You can. Only, if you come watch my tennis game."

"Fine, when is it?"

"Right now, let's go." I finally clued in. She wasn't wearing her normal uniform but instead changed to the gym uniform of Kuoh's tennis team. Pretty much the exact same as the normal one except it had a tennis racket embroidered on the upper left corner of the chest.

I grabbed my bag, and we ran out to the tennis court. I left her at the door of the court, making my way over to the stands where I saw none other than Rias. I sat next to her as everyone else would run away if I sat near them. As soon as I sat down, I heard the whispers begin.

"Hey Rias," I said casually.

"How was your nap, Vali."

"Wonderful, thanks for asking. Would have been nicer if I didn't have to run as soon as I woke up." We just sat in silence, watching the match. Kiyome was doing extremely well, holding Kuoh's entire tennis team on her back. "So, Rias. What are you doing watching the tennis match? Don't you have ORC stuff to do?" I asked, trying to break the silence.

"I have everyone keeping an eye on someone for me." She responded as coldly as ever.

"Mysterious as ever. You really are a chip off the old block, huh."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Your brother. You two are so similar. And I mean more than just the hair."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment."

"Yeah,it is. I respect your brother. Without him, I'd just be trailing through life, not truly human, not truly devil." She jumped onto me then, effectively shushing me.

"Are you stupid? Don't bring that up here." She hissed at me through closed teeth.

"Can you get off of me. You're going to start even more problems for my already non-existent social life." I joked. And just like that, I saw Rias smile at me. And we sat the rest of the tennis match in silence.

* * *

After the match, in which Kuoh won, Kiyome and I began to walk home. We didn't live too far from each other yet didn't walk to school together due to our differences in punctuality. As we walked home, a man approached us. He was a tall gentleman with a fedora, I recognized him as the fallen angel, Dohnaseek.

"Hey Dohnaseek. What are you doing here in Kuoh?" I asked, knowing him from my time meeting Grigori members with Azazel.

"Just a little business." He responded nonchalantly. He seemed up to something.

"Run home. If I'm not at school tomorrow, don't worry." I whispered to Kiyomi. She nodded, knowing that's the signal that I'm about to do something rash. And she booked it, hopefully home.

"So, Vali. How has life been treating you?" He tried to make small talk. He was stalling for something.

"Shut it Don. What do you want."

"My new leader wants the church up there." He actually answered me. Or at least I hope he answered me.

"So what do you mean by _new_ leader." The fact was stressed as he said this to whom he knew was living with Azazel.

"You don't need to know. You won't be around long enough." As he finished his sentence, a burning sensation went through my stomach. Another fallen angel joined him. Raynare! The fallen angel that went AWOL a few years ago. This can't be fucking good.

"Ugh, sorry it took me so long, Don. That fucking kid walks way too slow. And then when I asked him, he just stared at me like I already showed my true form. Stupid human." My vision was beginning to get hazy as they talked. My hearing going very quickly. When all of a sudden I blacked out.

 **A/N: So, welcome to my new story. I probably won't be working on this one nearly as much as my other. It kind of just came to me so I wanted to get it out before I forgot it. I'm not actually sure what to write in these things. I kind of just ramble on. Review at your leisure. Love to know what everyone thinks. ;p**


	2. Chapter 2

When I finally woke up, I found myself chained to the wall, with my hands behind my back. I was in some sort of a dungeon. It was dark and damp; very cliche if you ask me.

Next to me was a young girl, guessing, I'd say she was in at least middle school. She was wearing a light blue dress, that had obviously seen better days as it was covered in mud, dirt and the like. A blue cape with pink flowers on it, and covering her blonde hair, which was in quite a disarray, was a comically big blue sorcerer's hat.

"Hey," I tried to strike up a conversation with her. Maybe she could tell me where we were.

"Oh, hello. I didn't realize you woke up. How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling ok. How long have I been here."

"That's good. You were bleeding and burning quite profusely when you got here. Uh, you can't have been here more than two days or so. Oh, where are my manners. My name is Le Fay Pendragon. Yours?" Two days, huh. If I don't die in here, Kiyome will kill me for missing that much school. I then looked down to my chest seeing the gaping hole in my shirt but no outer damage. Weird, the light probably should have killed me.

"Name's Vali. Vali Lucifer. So what happened to the bleeding you mentioned."

"I healed you. I'm a magician. It's an honour to have gotten to heal a devil king."

"I'm not a devil king." I said solemnly.

"But your surname. Lucifer. Lucifer is one of the devil kings." She said. She seemed rightfully confused.

"My great-grandfather was a devil king. We've been kicked off that throne since then."

"So Lucifer is not a devil king?"

"He is, but… it's a long story. How about this. If we can get out of here, I'll tell you the whole story."

"That seems fair. But how do you proclaim that we go about this. They put magic sealing handcuffs on me, and your body is still not in the peak condition to use your demonic powers. Unless you have lockpicks hidden on you, I'm not sure how you want to go about this." She's right I won't have the stamina to break out with my own power, but maybe she does.

"How far are you willing to go to get out."

"I'd do anything at this point."

"Would you give your life to a devil."

"What are you planning."She seemed concerned, as I moved my body as far as I could towards her.

"Move yourself as far as you can towards me. Try and keep your hands towards me." She obeyed my directions. "Ok, in my pocket will be a bunch of chess pieces. Take them out." We had quite a struggle as she tried to get them all out of my pocket. Two rooks, two knights (One of my knight pieces is mutated, but I won't tell anybody that.), two bishops and a queen piece fell to the ground. "Ok, quick devil history lesson. Since the war between angels, fallen angels and devils, all three factions have had trouble re-bolstering their forces. The devils came up with a system called the evil piece system. Each piece resembles a trait, rooks are strength, knights are speed, bishops magic and queens all of the above. We can reincarnate humans as our servants with these. Don't be afraid of the word servant, you will still have most of your free will."

"So, you just choose a piece and it will reincarnate me as a devil. And you want me to use my new devil powers to get us both out. Am I following your plan, so far." She's smart for her age.

"Yep. Last chance to back out is now."

"No, I think this could be our only opportunity."

"Ok, each piece is worth just as much here as in chess so the stronger the person, the stronger the piece I'll need. I'm sorry if this offends you but I'm going to try the bishop pieces first and then the queen. I just want to hold onto my queen piece for as long as possible."

"Alright. It's fine." I grabbed what felt like a bishop from the ground, and moved it towards her. "Nope, nothing is happening."

"Alright, next, two bishop pieces" I grabbed a second bishop piece from the ground, and I motioned them towards her

"Still nothing."

"Ok, I guess it's worth it. We both need to get out of here." I placed the bishops down and found the queen piece. I felt the queen dissolve from my hand and a squeak come from her. I turned around and watched as she destroyed her binds. She then crawled over to me and used her power to pick the lock with her new devil power. I grabbed the remaining pieces, shoving them into my pocket, and we both stood up. I towered over my new queen, but whatever. "Ok, formality time. I Vali Lucifer have chosen you Le Fay Pendragon as my queen. Welcome to the world of devils."

She curtsied to me, "It is my pleasure to be by your side, former devil king, Vali."

"Alright let's get out of here before my pawn gets any angrier at me."

"Not so fast," Dohnaseek stood at the doorway out. "I'm not sure where you two think you're going."

"I'm not in the mood, Don. So just let us go, and you won't get hurt." He started laughing like a maniac.

"What are you going to do, my spear will still deal great of pain to you, and now you've made her more susceptible to it. Also, you are in no condition to fight."

"He doesn't need to fight," Le Fay added in the background. When I turned my head I noticed a teleportation circle behind us. "Let's go Vali, sir."

"See ya, Don." We jumped into the teleportation circle. "Guess I chose a great queen after all." And those were my last words to Don, for now.

* * *

When we appeared, we were on the hill next to the church in Kuoh. Le Fay was there with me. She seemed alright, tired but alright.

"Where did you learn how to teleport people," I asked her. That magic through demonic power was complicated, let alone using human magic, to do it.

"Before I got captured I was a member of the Golden Dawn. I left because I was looking for my brother. Then some little girl in a lolita outfit was looking for help. I tried to help, and the next thing I know, I'm in that dungeon. So I know my way around a good amount of magic"

"Well you're safe now, so let's go. I have some people I'm going to have to deal with,"

* * *

"Where have you been the last few days!" Class was over now, so Kiyome and I were outside the tennis court, she was absolutely furious at me. Good thing I confronted her at school or else she'd sic her beasts on me.

"An AWOL fallen angel surprise attacked me. Then I was captured in a dungeon under the church up on the hill. I reincarnated a powerful magician and we made our way out. That's the whole story."

"You are so fucking stupid! And reckless! And why did you tell me to run! I could have helped you! Wait. Did you say you reincarnate someone else? Why didn't you tell me? When do I get to meet them? What piece? Male or female? What are they like? Vali tell me, don't play me like this. Please."

"You can meet her after I go talk to Rias and Sona. Also, I used my queen piece."

"You used your queen piece?! You said you'd only use that if you really felt the person deserved it. She must be really strong."

"The circumstances desired I used it. Using both of my bishop pieces didn't work and we both really wanted to get out. I have to go meet the princesses now, so I'll meet you after tennis practice."

"Ok, see you later."

* * *

"Where have you been pretty boy." Rias joked as I walked into the ORC room. She really must have warmed up to me, since the tennis match. Everyone was gone again, even Akeno had gone home. It was just Rias, Sona and I. Sona sat across from the window, as I had a habit of daydreaming instead of listening in these meetings, when I'm across from the window. I took my seat across from Sona, kicking my feet up onto the table.

"Oh you know, out and about."

"Enough with the jokes you two. Vali is back, so we can now have the important meeting about these rogue fallen angels in our territory." Sona was always one to get to the point.

"So, you heard about them as well."

"Yeah, I reincarnated one of their victims using all of my pawn pieces." Rias added.

"Any idea what they are targeting. Me, your pawn and a Golden Dawn member, are the list of people so far."

"I never heard of a Golden Dawn member in the reports," Sona looked at me quizzically.

"Yeah, she helped me break out. I ended up reincarnating her in the process."

"So all of us as reincarnated someone since Vali disappeared. But that is beside the point. Can we do anything at the moment?"

"I don't think so. We may have three eyewitness accounts. But that means nothing without hard evidence."

"So, what do you think we do." Rias chimed in

"We wait. Until they misstep. Then we destroy them."

"That's easier said than done, Vali."

"Trust me, there are three peerages, and there aren't enough AWOL fallen angels for them to stand up to all of us."

"Fine, we'll go with Vali's plan for now."

"Good, now if you'll excuse me. My peerage needs to all meet. Oh yeah, Sona. Make up and excuse why I'm not going to be here the next few weeks. I have a devil mission I need to do, so I won't be in town." I stood up, stretching my legs a little bit.

"Fine, Vali would you like me to get your notes for you." I ran out at that moment.

"Yeah. Thanks Sona, seeya."

* * *

"Kiyome, meet Le Fay Pendragon. Le Fay, meet Kiyome Abe." I introduced them to each other.

"Hello, it's wonderful to meet you. Vali has only said great things about you." Le Fay curtsied. She had apparently been in the dungeon for quite a bit, and her outfit and hair were now in much better shape than before. While I went to school to get out of the firestorm that was Kiyome, Sona and the rest of the student council, she had stayed back with Azazel and was pretty caught up on what was going down in the devil world.

"It's great to have another devil in Vali's peerage. But not only that another girl devil, we can have girl talks, and do each others hair… " Kiyome proceeded to go on for quite a bit about her plans of things to do with Le Fay.

"Ok, introductions are now over." Azazel walked in, ready for business. "I've told Vali that I have a mission for you, but now it's debriefing time. You guys have a request from the first generation Sun Wukong."

"Question, who is the first generation Sun Wukong. Isn't their only one?" Le Fay asked politely.

"The first generation one, is the one you are thinking of. From the Journey to the West. But all of his descendants are named the same thing." I answered quickly.

"Exactly Vali. The mission is: he wants you guys to retrieve an artifact for him."

"That's all easy. Where is it, let's go." I was excited. This sounded easy and First Gen Sun Wukong always paid really well.

"Not so fast Vali. The person who stole the artifact, is a direct descendant of Sun Wukong himself. His name is Bikou. He is hiding somewhere out in the Sahara desert, messing with travellers. Along with him are a band of thieves who believe him to be the original. You guys are going to have to find their hideout, fight your way to him, and probably fight him for it."

"Even with only these members we have to perfect line up to do just that. Tell Sun Wukong, we're in."

"I'm in too." Kiyome added.

"If Vali says so. I'm also in."

"Alright, I'll tell Sun Wukong. You guys leave tomorrow. Meeting dismissed."

 **A/N: So, I'll probably just publish these chapters as they are finished. Instead of any sort of schedule. So they may be coming out rather quickly as I still have a bunch of ideas ready for this.**


	3. Chapter 3

_I was in a white space, where no physics seemed to apply. I was just floating. Had the light finally caught up and killed me? Was this purgatory?_

" _No you aren't dead." A British voice growled to me._

" _What? Where am I then? Who are you?" I questioned. I was having a serious case of deja vu, right now._

 _Suddenly the world changed to black except for a large white western dragon, with piercing blue eyes looking over me._

" _I just wanted to introduce myself to my partner."_

" _Uh, hi. But I still have no idea who you are."_

" _You will know. When you are ready." Oh, great riddles. I hate riddles. They bore me. "We will meet again. Vali."_

And with those words, I awoke with a dream, but if my time with Azazel taught me anything. Weird is actually really normal, most of the time. It was just about time to start getting ready, too. I had a monkey to catch and an artifact to return.

* * *

We met in the living room of Azazel's house a few moments later. Rather than my Kuoh Academy uniform, I was wearing my usual street clothes. They consist of a V-neck dark green shit with an open high-collared black leather jacket over. For pants I had on burgundy jeans with a silver jean dropping down and black leather chaps, I have three black cloth bands over my right calf as it is my weaker leg. I don't actually own any other shoes, so I am just wearing the black shoes with black buckles.

Kiyome was wearing her normal Kuoh Academy uniform. In hindsight, it would probably more comfortable for this mission as we would be in a desert, but it was tradition that I wear this for every mission. She was also carrying a crossbow and a quiver of arrows.

Then there was Le Fay who was wearing a japanese school girl outfit. Not the Kuoh outfit but like one that you'd get at a cosplay shop. Not that I'd ever been in a cosplay shop! But anyway, over it she was wearing her usual cape, and on top of her blonde curls was her enormously big hat.

"Ok, now that you are all ready, I will be teleporting the three of you to a small town on the outskirts of the Sahara. Your mission: Find Bikou, and capture the artifact. Bikou is wanted dead or alive at this point. There is no increase in reward for a kill. So letting him live is up to you. I trust in your judgement. Good luck." With Azazel's final words, we were gone.

* * *

The town looked exactly like what you would expect it to look like. The ground was covered in sand, and the buildings were built of sandstone. While it was an interesting sight to see, we weren't here to see the architecture.

"So, what's the plan?" Kiyome asked.

"His bandits have been attacking merchants. So, the best course of action, seems to be that we find a merchant vessel, go out with them. And the capture one of his bandits." I responded.

"I found one, Vali sir." Le Fay was pointing to a cart with the usual merchant top sitting at the other side of the town.

"Good work. Ok, lets move out."

We ran over to the young merchant. He had come into town a week ago to buy some goods, before the attacks started. Now has been stuck here looking for bodyguards. Since we weren't serious about staying the whole way, I promised that we'd do the job for free. With our bait settled, we headed off right at that moment.

The three of us stayed in the back with the goods, waiting for the bandits to attack. It was much cooler in here than walking, also I had one more thing to settle before we got to a real fight.

"Kiyome. We'll be putting Bikou's base as enemy territory, so promote as soon as we get there."

"Alright."

We seemed to be making good distance without any bandits attacking. Patiently we waited. It seemed like they would never attack, when we first heard our bait scream.

"That's our cue." I said as we jumped out of the caravan. There were five bandits, each armed with ancient chinese style swords. Replicas of course, as they were much too clean to be originals, "Sorry to bother you. But we'll be your opponents." I declared proudly. With the statement I made my sacred gear activate. Two light blue wings appeared from my back, shining brightly.

The bandits looked over at us in surprise, before a smirk appeared on one of the bandits lips. This bandit was obviously different from the rest as he was the only one wearing armor. "New plan, boys. Capture the two girls. KIll the other one. Sun Wukong should be happy with them." The leader spoke. His grunts nodded and moved away from the caravan. As I expected the caravan sped off, to save his own hide.

"Really? Capture the girls? You realize how cliche that is. Right?" Kiyome said, summoning her tamed harpy and lamia, and pulling out her crossbow. She docked an arrow before taking her usual place at the back of our formation.

I moved myself closer to the bandits, squaring off against the leader. "I'll take the leader. You two get the others."

"That works for me." The leader responded. His grunts moving past me, but blocked by the beasts.

With a flourish of magic, Le Fay was able to build herself and Kiyome advantageous hills to fight off of. With the battlefield set, The leader charged me, pulling his sword. I dodged it rather easily. Despite being their head, he came off as reckless and as if he wasn't thinking any of his moves ahead. With my position behind him, I landed a decent kick to the back of his head.

His soldiers were still trying to fight the harpy and lamia while Le Fay was firing down a barrage of arcane missiles and Kiyome a hail of arrows. They were getting frustrated as every time they dodged a projectile they'd get clawed by the harpy or bit by the lamia.

The leader back up again, smiling. "That was a good kick, boy. But I have a little trick up my sleeve." With that he pulled out a small purple orb. Throwing it at me, it morphed from the small orb, to a large fireball the size of a small car. [Divide]. I activated my sacred gear It got smaller but still big enough to hurt. I tried to dodge it, but as I rolled out of its way, it turned towards me. "You can't escape it. It will follow you until you are burned to ashes. Isn't it wonderful." [Divide] It got smaller but still not enough. Keeping my eyes on the leader, I got an idea.

I ran towards the leader. And feigned a punch to his head. As he went to block, I kneed him in the abdomen. [Divide] The fireball got smaller. As long as I was fighting him on my terms, the fireball was too slow to catch up to me and he couldn't get an advantage if I didn't just run around.

With the other fighting going on, two of the grunts had fallen. It looked like the fight was going well, but just as a third bandit fell to the constant barrage. The entire fight changed. Appearing behind our backline, was a Giant Golbi death worm. Nocking a new arrow. Kiyome turned to the death worm. "Le Fay, you good without me? I can deal with the worm."

"Yes. I should be fine."

"Good." Kiyome unsummoned her beasts, as she jumped off of the hill.

[Divide] The fire ball had finally reached a size where it wasn't of much use. While the bandit leader was crawling to his feet, I grabbed him in a headlock choking him. "Gameover buddy." and with that I snapped his neck. The last bandit, noticed that he had no way to win, as all of his comrades were dead. He attempted to take off into the desert, but the soft sand tripped up his running. And Le Fay caught him in magical binds. I turned around and with one final divide, I destroyed the fire ball with my fist.

Kiyome walked back over to us, an acid burn destroying part of her skirt. Other than that she looked fine and was rather smug about it.

"So. Are you going to tell us where the monkey king is. Or will we have to beat it out of you." I bent down next to our prisoner.

"I'll lead you to him. Just please don't hurt me."

"No promises," I smiled.

* * *

So we finally made it to be what looked to be a giant stone shrine in the middle of the desert. The stones were so smooth that they couldn't have been cut by anything other than a super precise laser. It was so out of place, that I'm not even sure how it got here. Let alone questioning how it was built here.

"Here we are." Our prisoner announced.

"Let's go inside first, then we'll let you go." I said. I walked into the building; looking around it was a total disaster. "Yo, Bikou. Are you in here?!" I called out.

"One moment." A male voice called out. His voice was saturated in disrespect but it was also sounded bored and looking for fun. I could also sense a hint of loneliness and sadness. Down the stairs came a young man, about the same age as myself; with short black hair. He was wearing ancient chinese armor and he had a monkey tail. Along with that he was carrying a staff. "What's up?"

"Are you Bikou?" I asked.

"Yeah? Who's asking?"

"Alright." With that one simple word, Kiyome unloaded an arrow right right through our prisoner's skull. "I'm Vali Lucifer. I'm here to get back the artifact you stole."

"Oh. That's all? You can have it. Worth nothing anyway." He picked up an ornate vase from the table beside him. Tossing it over to us, I caught it. I passed it to Le Fay and we got back to talking.

"If it's worth nothing why steal it?"

"Thought selling it would let me live out on my own. Sick of the whole responsibility thing. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah. Guess that also explains why you have the bandits raiding carts. To make money?"

"Yep. It's always just it's your responsibility this and it's your responsibility that with First-Gen. I just want to live my life how I want to."

"I understand. But now you are a criminal wanted dead or alive. So what do you want to do now?"

"I'll figure it out. For once, I'll figure it out on my own." I really felt for the guy, you know. He just wants to live without his ancestor telling him what to do. I think I have an idea how to help him.

"Bikou, I might have an idea. It's not the greatest solution, but why don't you join me? A group of people who have all been on the run before. I'm a descendant of the Old Satan faction, whose family chased me out; I was on the run from both devils and humans. Kiyome, ran away from her arranged marriage, with every other beast hunter wanting to kill her for the infraction of customs. And Le Fay, well she's a mage. We all know how humans deal with mages historically. So what do you say?"

"I'm not sure. Leaving one person telling me what to do, to becoming a devil's servant. Not really my thought of a solution."

"Ask Kiyome and Le Fay they can both tell you that I'm a pretty great master."

"Yeah, Vali is a pretty alright guy. I owe him for everything he's done for me."

"Sir Vali is a wonderful master. Without him, I'd still be in that fallen angel dungeon."

"Whaddya say Bikou?" I held out my hand

"Alright, if it means my freedom from First-Gen, I'm in." He shook my hand. I proceeded to pull a rook piece out of my pocket, and hand it to Bikou where it dissolved just fine.

"Alright, Bikou. Welcome to my peerage, as my first rook let's do stuff."

"So, what stuff is up first."

"First off, we're returning this artifact to the First-Gen."

"You don't mean—"

"Yep." And with that, Le Fay transported the four of us.

* * *

"Good work, Vali. Thank you for recovering my favorite vase." First-Gen was wearing his usual prayer beads and sunglasses. He was also carrying a cane, which I knew doubled as his famous staff. The four of us were knelt before him; who is one of the most powerful beings in this world.

"It was no problem, Sun Wukong. I am glad to have your descendant now among my group."

"Ah yes. My problem descendant. It will be good for him to be shown so actual discipline."

"Hey, I'm right here!"

"Take good care of him, Vali." First-Gen laughed. "I did promise something for Azazel when we set this mission up. Vali, if it is okay with you, I can check the total power of each member of your peerage."

"It is fine with me. But I can't speak for everyone, so it's up to them."

"It's fine with me." Kiyome spoke first.

"I agree." Le Fay added in.

"Sure, why not. Maybe then it'll show you I'm not just some little kid." Bikou finished.

"Alright, I'll start with Bikou." He put his hand upon Bikou's head and closed his eyes. After a few moments he spoke, "Bikou, while the rook now embedded in you has increased your already above average strength; you still lack in most areas. I suggest intense daily meditation to increase your knowledge of both senjutsu and youjutsu, then actually using it in training to increase your magical reserves, along with your new demonic power it will round out your impressive physical strength. Your speed can lack at time, but just basic reflex training will be fine as your innate defense and the defense of the rook should be enough to protect you from most attacks. Remember, just because your physical strength is good right now does not mean you can forget to train it more. All in all, a decent choice for a rook."

"Wow, you actually gave me a compliment. That's new, thanks."

"Now the other newcomer, Le Fay." He repeated his process from Bikou to Le Fay, "Your reserve of magical power is insanely big for a girl of your age. Your range of spells is also quite large. As far as your compatibility with the queen piece goes, your strongest is obviously the bishop piece, followed by the knight and finally the rook. I'd suggest basic strength training, and learning any shield spells you don't already know; this will prevent you from just being a glass cannon. An alternative would be speed training and shield spells, but running may take out time for you to cast spells. As with Bikou, remember to still improve your natural strength, for even as a basic glass cannon you will be an incredible threat to a battle field."

"Thank you Wukong, sir."

"Now, Kiyome," Repeating the process again, he began. "Kiyome, speed-wise impressive. As a beast tamer, your arsenal is even more impressive. Your marksmanship seems fine but it could probably be improved. Your ability to run-and-gun with a crossbow is a skill most people never learn. I suggest becoming even more accurate with it. As a beast tamer most of your strength isn't even up to you, but for what I could see you have a rather well rounded group of creatures at your disposal. Your demonic power seems limited to summoning your beasts though, so try and increase your reserves and array of magic. Physically, you also seem to lack, but with the rest of your arsenal considered, you should be alright."

"Thank you."

"Finally, Vali." We began to process. It felt like icy water rushing down your body, then as it was almost over a scorching heat flew back up, and with that it was over. That was First-Gen's special technique for checking someone's abilities and skills. "Vali. You are as strong as ever. Your demonic energy reserves are insane. Your martial art abilities are excellent. Your speed is excellent. And your skill with your sacred gear is excellent. But your sacred gear is exactly the problem at the moment. Your ability with it is so good, you have mastered everything that it can offer you. Even though you've reached such a high threshold completed, it is still only a fraction of the way mastered. The smallest fight will trigger it, I sense that there is more than meets the eye to it, and if you will allow me, I'd like to test this."

"I would be ever so grateful to test my ability against you."

"Alright I'd like you to stand up and activate your sacred gear." Doing as I was told, I looked down at the First-Gen.

"Good. Where I don't know as much about sacred gears as Azazel, this should work just fine." He then jumped up, front flipping and hitting me over the head with his cane, knocking me out.

* * *

 _I was back inside the white void. Floating again, but it felt different now. it felt almost felt like a second home to me. Like I belonged here._

" _Hey, you here still dragon, partner, bro." I called out._

" _So, you're back. What do you want?" The giant white dragon appeared again, staring me down with his ice blue eyes._

" _Would you and this place have anything to do with my sacred gear?" I asked. I have a theory, but I'll need him to talk if I want to prove it._

" _Hmm, so you have come closer to figuring it out. What do you figure, Vali."_

" _I'm guessing that this place is inside my sacred gear and that you somehow have control over my sacred gear."_

" _Very good. You are correct. I am Albion, the heavenly dragon locked away inside Divine Dividing"_

" _Awesome, so what do I get for solving your riddle?"_

" _Since your ability with the gear is so high and you have made contact with me and you don't have any stupid things in place preventing me to grant you more power. I think at this point in time, you have unlocked Divine Dividing's balance breaker, and communication with me at other times than when you are knocked out." He was wearing comical reading glasses and checking things off of some checklist on a human-sized clipboard as he talked._

" _Alright, I guess we are now finally partners. Let's do well, Albion."_

" _Let's Vali."_

* * *

I awoke still on the ground in front of Sun Wukong with my peerage standing around me. I was also wearing some kind of white armor that had light blue accents and an interesting dragon motif.

"The balance breaker of the White Dragon Emperor, all you needed was a small push to gain a power to start being able to rival gods."

"Wow, Vali. I guess I made the right choice choosing such a strong person to join." Bikou said stunned.

"Vali sir, I'm happy for you."

"Good job Vali, but please don't scare me like that again."

"Thanks guys." I smiled.

"Vali, sorry to interrupt, but there is news that you guys may be needed back in Kuoh. I already deposited your payment into your devil bank account, so good luck on whatever it is you need to do."

"Thanks, Sun Wukong. You heard the man, let's good!" I stood up, still wearing the armor.

""" Yeah""" They cheered.


	4. Chapter 4

When we arrived back in Kuoh it was night. We had been transported at the bottom of the hill in front of the old church. Rias and Sona were there with both their respective peerages. I knew most of the people there, except for two.

One was a second-year with short brown hair. He is of a medium height, and just a little bit taller than myself. He is wearing the Kuoh Academy uniform with the blazer open revealing a red shirt underneath, also rather than dress shoes he's wearing white and blue sneakers. He has light brown eyes that right now are brimming with determination.

The other is about the same height with short blonde hair. If I'm correct he is also a second-year. His variation of the Kuoh uniform is just missing the blazer and rolling up his sleeves. He has grey eyes, that look scared for some reason.

"Vali! What are you looking at, get over here. You're late" Sona barked at me.

"Sorry, I had some business to take care of first."

"Well you took your sweet ass time." Rias said, as I walked over to the two groups with my peerage.

"What is the school's delinquent doing here? And the tennis queen as well?" The brunette asked, obviously shocked and a little annoyed.

"Issei, this is Vali Lucifer. He is a high-class devil/human hybrid. And as you can guess he is related to the original devil king." Rias explained to her servant.

"Yo~" I said casually.

"This guy is related to such a powerful person? I'd never guess for how he acts…"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!"

"You know... you don't come off as very... you know... regal."

"Whatever. You try being exiled and see how regal you become." I turned with a humph.

"Sorry for my pawn's ignorance Vali." Rias apologized. "This is Issei Hyoudou, all eight of my pawns."

"It's no problem, Rias." I turned back around with a smile.

"That mood swing… scary—" Issei said quietly.

"Vali, this is my new pawn, Genshirou Saji. I used four of my pawns on him." Sona said.

"Hello," He said with a bow.

"Don't be so formal buddy. I ain't royalty or anything. Leave that for your king's sister." I said with a laugh; Sona cringed at the mention of her sister.

"So Vali, want to introduce the new comers to your peerage?" Rias asked.

"Sure. This is Kiyome Abe, Kuoh's tennis queen and all eight of my pawns."

She bowed, "Hello."

"This is Le Fay Pendragon, former member of the mage faction, the Golden Dawn, and my queen."

Bowing as well, "It's nice to meet you," she said.

"She's so cute!" Both pawns exclaimed.

""pervert."" Koneko and Ruruko said, effectively crushing the two boys' spirits.

"And finally my newest member, Bikou, a descendant of the legendary Sun Wukong and my rook."

"Hey." He added coolly.

"And that is everyone. So are we just here for introductions, or what's up?"

"The Fallen Angels are going to be sacrificing an excommunicated nun in this church to steal her sacred gear and the three of us have been tasked with her rescue." Rias said coldly. Her pawn's determined look was back but he also looked kind of sad.

"Alright, what's the plan?"

"You know of a dungeon, so you guys will be slipping in from there. Rias and her group will be going in through the front door, and my group will stroll around the perimeter, making sure no one escapes."

"That works for me. Group, let's move out!"

* * *

It hadn't been that long since we had just escaped from this church. Hence,we tracked the magical signature and Le Fay transported us right where we had left before. Once inside the church, we noticed that the prison door had been unlocked, obviously they hadn't caught any prisoners since then.

We made our way through the labyrinth that was the underside of the church until we found our first guard. He found an arrow through the skull before he even had a chance to see us. As we continued down that corridor, we found a weapon storage. Thinking it a good idea, we stole two light guns, a few clips of light ammo and ten light arrows, which Kiyome put on herself for more firepower. Along with that I stole a light sword in case I got into a sword fight down here. Bikou grabbed a few light bombs as they looked like they'd come in handy.

I had Le Fay mark the place with magic in case we ever needed to come back, and we continued on our way. We came by a few other store rooms each filled with similar light themed weaponry. Getting each room marked so we could find them again, we made our way through the corridors. There were a few guards but nothing we couldn't handle. But finally we found a huge clearing, and there was a huge ruckus coming from the floor above.

In the clearing were thousands of exorcists all waiting on standby. I saw stairs on the far end of the room packed with exorcists, and a green light coming from the top.

"YO!" I shouted at the exorcists. They turned around all looking at us, each in confusion and anger. "We're going to be your opponents instead, so let's get on with this!" They all looked around at each other, before shrugging and cheering, lifting their swords up high.

Bikou and I stepped forward, as Kiyome and Le Fay stood behind us. I activated my sacred gear and then tried to activate my balance breaker. [ **ENGLISH DRAGON OVER BOOSTER: SCALE MAIL** ] with the words echoing around the room, the exorcists got even more interested in us, as my armor covered me. Pulling the sword I stole and Bikou pulling his staff, we engaged the exorcists.

As I kept them at bay, showing off the sword training I did have, Bikou had made his way near the middle of the room, causing chaos, jumping around and bashing people in with his replica of Sun Wukong's legendary staff. Le Fay and Kiyome had the suppressive fire thing down holding off any of them that got past me and even getting time to hit people still fighting their way to us. These were just common humans though, they seemed very untrained and were no trouble at all.

But while they weren't very strong, they did have a huge numbers advantage. We were all getting tired and we needed a solution fast. This probably went through Kiyome's mind as well, as I watched as summoning circles appeared in the centre of the room; the Lucifer crest, a silver pentagram with a goat head in the middle. And out of the circle came, a Giant Golbi death worm.

The exorcists, suddenly forgot about us as the death worm took their attention, allowing us to take a break and even get in a few cheap shots on them.

Bikou jumped back to us as I said, "We should make our break to the main fight, while we have the chance."

"Probably" Kiyome agreed.

"Not so fast, Vali!" A gruff male voice said. The voice belonged to Dohnaseek who was making his way casually down the stairs. "I can't have you interfering in Lady Raynare's plans."

"Dude, how fucking cliche can you get?" Bikou yelled across the room. As the rest of us stifled a giggle and the exorcists kept getting their asses handed to them by the death worm, Dohnaseek looked even more pissed.

"Vali, I will teach your servant proper respect, by murdering you and feeding your head to rabid dogs."

"...what. Dude… Overkill much... Murdering me should be fine" I responded looking confused. A vein started to pop out of Dohnaseek's head.

"I WILL FUCKING RIP YOU LIMB TO FUCKING LIMB! STOP FUCKING MESSING AROUND YOU FUCKING LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT BRAT DEVIL!"

"lol you mad bro." Bikou said jokingly, sending the rest of us into wild fits of laughter, even the exorcists and death worm seemed to laugh.

"THAT'S IT! TIME TO KILL YOU ALL!" And Dohnny charged at us, materializing a light spear.

Composing myself, I blocked with my sword, "You guys go, I'll fight here."

"""Got it.""" They said making their way to where the main fight was taking place. It was now just me and Don, surrounded by exorcist corpses. The death worm had been unsummoned, allowing us to fight 1v1.

[Divide] I weakened his light spear but he just put more power into it, placing it back to top shape. But while nothing happened to him, I felt stronger for some reason.

[ _Partner, with this new iteration of Divine Dividing, the power you divide from other people will be added to you. Be careful not to over do it though or the armor will break from too much power coursing through it.]_

Got it, Albion. I parried his next strike, using the time to feint a blow and jump back as he attempted to dodge.

"Wrong choice." He said as he threw his spear at me. [Divide] I tried to make it smaller but as I dived away, it struck my leg. Along with me dropping my sword causing it to fly halfway across the room.

"Aarrgh" I screamed as the light burned my flesh and started coursing through my blood. "That really does hurt like a bitch."

"Good, maybe that will teach you some manners."

" _Yo, Albion. What would theoretically happen if I tried to use divide on my own pain?"_

[ _Theoretically, the pain should diminish. But I'm not sure if you would gain power from it. No one has ever thought to try that_ ]

[Divide] the pain went down slightly, and I could feel a slight surge in power. Not like if I were to have divided the source directly, but enough to do this.

I pulled the spear out of my leg, throwing it at Dohnaseek. "Too slow." He said as he dodged it; slowly making his way over to me.

I got to my feet again, wobbling as there was still a huge hole in my left leg. "Let's end this right here, Don."

"Let's." Taking all the power I've taken so far, I concentrated it all into my fist. Then pouring that power into one destructive spell. We then charged each other. No longer could I feel the pain, my adrenaline taking it all away. We were about to collide when [Divide] I removed half of the magical protection of his clothing away.

My punch connected with his chest; the power and demonic magic blowing a hole through his chest. His fist connected with my face though, the velocity and power sending me flying into the wall.

I smiled weakly, knowing I won. But I then succumbed to my injuries, blacking out against the wall.

* * *

When I woke up, I was back in my bed. Also I was completely naked. The first person I saw when I woke up was Kiyome. She instantly threw her arms around me in a hug.

"Oh my god. I was so scared, I thought you'd never wake up. I'm so happy. Please don't ever scare me like that again. Please, promise me." She cried into my shoulder.

"Alright. I'll become the strongest White Dragon just for you." I said as I returned her hug.

"Thank you, Vali." She said as she started to compose herself.

"So what happened at the church. And how long was I out for." I said dryly.

"You've been out for a week. Sona left all your notes on the table if you want them. For the church... We were too late to save her. But that Issei boy defeated Raynare, recovered her sacred gear and Rias ended up resurrecting the nun."

"So that's how it goes I guess. What else has happened since I was out?"

"Well Bikou transferred into our class at school. And due to extremely high test scores, Le Fay skipped a few grades, placing her in Koneko's first-year class." She proceeded to hand me an envelope. "Also, Azazel wanted me to give you this, as soon as you woke up."

I opened the envelope. Contained within it was a message from Sirzechs. It read:

 _To Vali,_

 _How is it going, Vali. I forgot to tell you five years ago, when we first met; thanks for being such a bro about me taking your surname and forcing you to use a fake one. Also, apparently on your plot of land here in the underworld, a rare metal was found, not only does Ajuka want to extensively study it, but it has been shown to make excellent weaponry. As it is the only vein to be known in the underworld, we decided to give you an offer. Your property, for a mansion overlooking the dimensional gap, as well as having a man-made beach. Also to sweeten the deal and to repay you for our first meeting, I've attached a check to this letter, as well as pictures of the offered property. Please reply with your answer as soon as you can._

 _From: Sirzechs Lucifer_

 _P.S. Riser will be in the human world soon, and knowing my adorable little sister it may end in a rating game. Try and make sure that it is as interesting as possible. Thanks._

The property looked super nice and all. The view into the dimensional gap was beautiful. The beach looked pretty nice as well. It seemed like it was a perfect place to start my rise back into the underworld's caste system. Not to mention it didn't seem too far from Agreas, so I could maybe go see some fights while I was there.

"It looks really pretty." Kiyome said, hovering over my shoulder.

"Yeah. Based just on that I may say yes. But the cash prize is what matters."

"You never change, Vali." She laughed.

Flipping past all the pictures, there it was, the cheque. It was folded in half for some reason. As I unfolded it, it turned out to be just a picture of the cheque but still, "WHAT THE FUCK!" I exclaimed as I saw the huge figure. "One hundred million dollars."

"Holy shit. Wow. Imagine everything we can do with that."

"I know. That along with Sun Wukong's reward. Along with the bounties we've been doing. We have enough money and a close enough to steady income to buy our very own house, here in the human world."

"We should probably go tell everyone. They are probably still waiting downstairs."

"Alright. Let me just send a letter back to Sirzechs."

"Okay. I'll meet you downstairs." She said, softly kissing my cheek as she left.

I got up and changed into my usual street clothes, then I sat down and began my letter:

 _To, Sirzechs Lucifer,_

 _Fuck yeah. I will one hundred percent take your offer._

 _From: Vali Morningstar_

* * *

I walked downstairs to see everyone sitting around. Azazel was sipping sake in his usual black attire. Bikou was sitting there in black shorts and a muscle shirt. Kiyome didn't have time to change between the time I last saw her and now, so she was still wearing her school uniform. Le Fay was in her trademark outfit, but she was sitting next to some guy that I didn't recognize.

He was about my age, with blonde hair that was tied into somewhat of a ponytail, dropping over his right shoulder. Under his glasses were two dull grey eyes. He was wearing a business suit and was sipping on a cup of tea. I guess if I'm the bad boy type, he's more of the gentleman type.

"Hey Vali, so you really are awake." Azazel said.

"It's good to see you awake Vali, sir." Le Fay chimed in happily.

"How was your nap, Vali?" Bikou asked, as Kiyome thumped him on the head. "Ow. Come on Kiyome, someone needs to lighten the mood.

"Hello Vali." The new guy said calmly.

"Hey. Are you going to give me your name, or just leave me in the dark. How you wanna do this?"

"My name is Arthur Pendragon. Glad to make your acquaintance."

 **A/N:** Here we are, the next chapter of "The Silver Emperor", and the end of volume 1. I hope you enjoyed it. With Arthur's appearance, we're just missing Kuroka and the whole Vali team is back together :D With that said, I'm having trouble finding another rook for Vali. Most of the canon characters that are free and work for the rook piece have sacred gears, which doesn't fit Vali's MO when it comes to choosing team members. If anyone has any ideas on who they would like to see fit that role I'd love to hear it. On that note, I'd like to thank the one person who reviewed this story so far, I love to read the comments, so please feel free to review. With that out of the way, next time we start volume 2. ~Quryix


	5. Chapter 5

"My name is Arthur Pendragon. Glad to make your acquaintance." the blonde said.

"Isn't it great sir. I found my big brother again." Le Fay said happily.

"So you are Le Fay's brother. It's nice to finally meet you."

"Nice to meet the man who saved my sister from those fallen angels. While I can't say I approve of your method, I still thank you."

"We did what we needed to do to get out. We tried every other option first."

"I understand. I'm not actually in Kuoh for that reason. I'm here because there is word that three of the excalibur fragments were stolen. My information says that the thief is heading here. I decided to get a head start, so I can recover the fragments in the name of house Pendragon. Since I found my dear little sister, I also wanted to ask if you would be so gracious as to let me board with you, Vali."

"Two things. First; this actually isn't my house, this is Azazel's place. Second, which is actually for everyone. I have an announcement. Due to unforeseen circumstances in the underworld, I have come into a rather large sum of money as well as a new house in the underworld. With this extra money, I have decided that I shall be buying a house here in Kuoh for us to use as our base of operations here in the human world. So, Arthur; until this money is finally sent to me from the four satans, and I have found our new place, I can't say anything about you living with me."

"It's fine with me." Azazel said calmly.

"Well then it's settled. Arthur shall be staying with us."

"Yay, I get to see big brother everyday, again." Le Fay said hugging her brother.

* * *

So, I was finally back at school again. Bikou, Le Fay and I were chilling in the ORC room while Kiyome finished tennis practice. I met Asia Argento, Rias' new bishop and the nun we failed to save. If this was a mission we would've gotten, it would have been considered a failure. Not to mention we wouldn't get paid. But that's the difference between Rias and I. Her family has the prestige to do contracts. I feel bad for my peerage that they can't take the easy way out. We don't have any prestige, so our ranking can only grow by doing bounties for random benefactors.

"Issei." I said coldly.

"Yeah, Vali." He came off as if my presence made him uncomfortable.

"Tell me about your fight with Raynare."

"Uh, if you don't mind me asking, why?"

"Because, your aura doesn't feel particularly strong. I've fought Raynare before, she is much stronger than you. You should have gotten your ass handed to you."

"Well, I was getting my ass handed to me, but then my sacred gear did some stuff. And my power kept increasing and somehow I won." He said, rubbing the back of his head.

"What do you mean by it did stuff?" How does he expect to get anywhere in life, if he can't articulate such a simple point.

"Let me show you." He activated his sacred gear. It was a red gauntlet in the shape of a dragon claw, with gold spikes extruding and a green gem in the middle. "It changed mid fight to look like this."

[ _It can't be! This guy has the Boosted Gear. This generation is gonna be easy. Good game, Ddraig. I win this one._ ]

 _"Explain, Albion."_

[ _As you know, I was sealed in here because of a fight during the great war. Well the dragon I was fighting, Ddraig, was also sealed. Every generation two people are gifted with our power. Those two people are destined to eventually fight. And that is undoubtedly his sacred gear._ ]

"Issei, have you talked to your sacred gear recently?"

"Talked to it? Why would I talk to an inanimate object?" _Out loud that does sound kinda stupid._

[ _I guess. Maybe he's dreamt of Ddraig at least?_ ]

"Ok let me rephrase that. Have you had any dreams involving a dragon?"

"Uh, yeah actually. I had one last night. Why?" Really why him of all people. _That would be super boring if I just won right here and now. Maybe when he gets stronger we'll fight._

[ _I guess that works. I kinda want to win this generation though. So don't let him get too strong._ ]

 _"Got it, Albion."_

"Just curious. It's just a thing with that gear is all. I'll tell you when it matters, Issei." I said as I turned to Rias, who has been staring out the window for awhile now.

"Shit man, don't gotta be so cryptic."

"Yes, I do." I said as I stood up. "Now if you don't mind. I gotta go."

* * *

Kiyome and I went go look at plots of land in Kuoh. With the closeness I have with Sirzechs, Rias, Sona and even Serafall to a lesser extent; getting places built in their human world territory isn't too hard. I overheard Rias say that she got her place built in a night. So, even not being part of immediate family, Sirzechs could pull some strings.

I would have gotten the rest of my peerage to accompany us, since this will affect them as well, but they were all busy. Bikou was busy training, and Le Fay was busy bonding with her brother. He didn't seem all too happy with his sister when we met, but he's warmed up to me and started to accept his sister's choice since then.

So, it was just us sitting next to Kuoh's coastline. For some reason, everytime we ever talked about getting our own place it always came back to the water. So. here we were, a little bit from a forest, overlooking the coastline.

"Vali…" Kiyome said. Her voice and eyes showed sadness as she stared at the water rippling; reflecting the orangish hue of the sunset.

"Yeah."

"What do think of me?"

"Hmm. what do you mean?"

"What am I to you?"

"You are my most trusted friend. Why?"

"Oh, no reason. I'm just curious."

I'm used to my own crypticness, so I decided to let her have her space. "What do you think of here?"

"It's really nice."

"I agree. I guess we should head back now"

"Yeah."

* * *

The next day, both Rias' entire peerage as well as my own, along with Arthur were standing around the ORC clubroom. After yesterday, Kiyome has been kinda off and distant. I'll let her have her distance until it affects job performance, than I'll bring it up with her.

For some reason Grayfia was here as well. Grayfia usually doesn't come to the human world unless it is for a really good reason, so whatever it is should be good.

"For the last time, tell father that I refuse!" Rias said angrily.

"Rias, you don't have a say in the matter. It has already been arranged."

"I don't care call it off."

"We can't—" Grayfia tried to rebuttal again when a magic circle appeared in the clubroom.

"Phenix…" I whispered under my breath. Out of a the fire that accompanies a Phenix magic circle, stepped a man around his early twenties. He had blonde hair and dark blue eyes. His burgundy blazer matched his dress pants, which is tacky in its own right, as well as having gold embroidered into the breast pocket. The dress shirt under his blazer was unbuttoned a little to show off his chest.

"Hello, lowly renicanates. You may bow in Riser's presence."

"Can it, Riser. The whole third-person thing is annoying." I said coldly. Riser and I didn't get off on the best foot. He annoys me, and he thinks I'm lower than him cause I'm half-human. If I get the chance, I'll fucking destroy him.

"Oh, Vali. You came as well to see Riser's time in the filthy human world."

"No. I just hang out here sometimes."

"Whatever. Riser has come to see his Rias."

"I agree with Vali. Can it, Riser." Rias said mimicking my coldness.

"Who do you think you are! Just teleporting in and thinking you own the place." Issei said angrily.

"Issei don't interfere." I shot at him.

"Issei, that's Riser Phenex. A high-class devil." Kiba explained to him.

"And Rias' finance." I finished. Fuck, I really want to wipe that smug expression off of Riser's stupid face.

* * *

Now it was just Rias and her peerage, myself, Grayfia and Riser. My peerage left, since: Kiyome had tennis practice, Le Fay, Bikou and Arthur left since, to quote Bikou, "Shit just got hella awkward."

Rias peerage were standing against the wall near the window, with the exception of Akeno who was serving tea. Grayfia was sitting on the edge of Rias' desk. Riser was sitting next to Rias with his arm around her. As for me, I took Rias' normal seat. I was kinda just boredly spinning. The chair was fucking comfortable, so I wasn't really paying attention. I just caught Grayfia giving me dirty looks every once and awhile. Then there was yelling, and she stepped in.

"Rias, Sirzechs assumed you'd reach an impasse, so he set up an alternative."

"What is it? Actually, I don't even care. I'll take it. Anything to get away from this bastard."

"A rating game." I nearly fell out of my seat. Holy shit. Is it actually going to happen.

"Yeah, I'll take it."

"Riser will destroy you Rias. Riser can give you 10 days to make it closer though. Either way, Riser will still win."

"We'll see about that Riser."

"Is this your whole group Rias with the exception of The Strongest Queen and the random High-class half-breed, of course."

"Yes, why?"

"Well Riser has a full set," He then summoned his peerage. All-female as expected from the playboy of the Phenex clan. He started making out with the two catgirls. They looked super underage, and my illegal alarm totally started going off. But of course Issei, being the pervert that he was, got all starry-eyed. Then Riser started talking again, and Issei got pissy. Issei got into a fight with one of Riser's pawns and totally got his ass handed to him.

[ _That guy is supposed to be our rival. I feel sorry for you Vali._ ]

" _Don't worry Albion. We'll make sure he doesn't embarrass us when he has the rating game."_

Eventually Riser left. Still being a total jackass. Then Grayfia left to inform Sirzechs about what went down here.

"Well now that, all of that is over. Time for the real reason I needed to stay." I said proudly.

"Can you please tell us when you do stuff because of ulterior motives, Vali." Rias looked at me with an annoyed expression, while Asia was busy healing Issei.

"No. Where would be the fun in that. About why I stayed. Sirzechs wants the fight to be interesting, so he wants me to help you train." I smiled, leaning onto Rias' desk.

"Big brother, really asked you to do that?"

"Yep."

"Did Rias, just call Sirzechs, brother? Isn't Sirzechs…"

"The current Lucifer. Yep. He's using my name and making me use a fake one in the devil world. So, we kinda know each other."

"Rias is related to the current Lucifer, yes Issei." Kiba explained.

"Send me the location where you'll be training, and I'll be there whenever you get there. Bye." I said, leaving the room.

* * *

So, my peerage, Arthur and I were standing around in Azazel's living room. "New announcement." I proclaimed, "All of us. Even you, Arthur, will be heading out to a mountain close by. We have been asked, by the current Lucifer, to help Rias and her peerage train for their fight with Riser."

"Wooo, vacation time." Bikou cheered. Kiyome thumped him on the head.

"It's not a vacation. We gotta help Rias." She said as Bikou rubbed his forehead.

"It does still sound like fun…" Le Fay added in.

"I guess I'll go. There has been no sign of the excaliburs so far."

"Alright, everyone pack tonight. We leave tomorrow morning. We will also be using the time to grow stronger, but remember. Now that we're training them, our pride is on the line here too. Lets make sure they win."

 **A/N: Another week, another chapter. So, romantic tension has kinda built. I'm not sure whether or not to act on the whole ValixKiyome arc. I'd love to know what people think about it, whether they like it, etc... So until I come to a decision whether or not to make it a major part of the story, it shall stay a little side arc. I still don't have a whole format thing down for these, so it will probably just be me rambling for a few more chapters. Thanks to the people who are reviewing, I love reading the comments. This is getting a little long so I'll talk about the whole 2nd rook thing next time. Uh, comment your thoughts on the story, and uh, see ya next time, bye.**


	6. Chapter 6

"So, Arthur. Where did you go off to when you left Le Fay?" As the first two awake and done packing, we were standing around Azazel's living room. Bikou just woke up and was finishing packing. And, none of know about Le Fay. She just said something about not being ready yet, so we decided not to pry. Kiyome still had the travel between her place, to here. So it was to be expected she wasn't here yet.

"I was invited to join a group called the Hero Faction. They promised that I'd get to fight strong opponents, so I instantly jumped at the chance."

"That sounds like fun, I guess. Is that all they do? A group with such a grand name, normally has higher goals than just that." I've heard of them before. They hunt supernatural creatures for sport. They are sometimes considered supernatural poachers by our world. So prying needed to be done, in case they become a threat and we need to eliminate them.

"The leader of the Hero Faction claims that his goal is simply to prove and expand humanity's limits. But he can be kinda shady at times, so I'm not sure." Well, that is certainly… boring.

"Well, would you ever considering joining me? Your sister seems like she is enjoying herself here. You could join too. We do fight strong opponents from time-to-time."

He broke into hysterical laughter. To be honest, that's the first time anyone, that I know of, has broken his plastered on serious face. Let alone make him laugh. "Sorry Vali. That is entirely out of the question. Even if I wanted to, I can't."

"Aww, why not." I jokingly pouted.

Out of some sort of pocket dimension, he pulled out a golden European Longsword. It had engravings all over it and radiated a super powerful holy aura. "Do you know what this is Vali."

"A holy sword?"

"It isn't just any holy sword. This is Caliburn. The holy emperor sword. The most powerful holy sword. If I became a devil, I couldn't wield it. Just touching holy objects hurts devil's way too much."

"Yeah, that's true. That sucks, you'd be a great addition to my peerage, especially with that sword."

"Yeah it could be kinda fun being a devil."

* * *

After that awkward conversation, everyone else started to show up one by one. We then took a magic circle up to the mansion that the Gremory group would be training at. They were just coming up the hill as we arrived.

They looked tired hiking up the hill. Issei was carrying a medium-sized pack, but was super out of breath, Kiba had a similarly sized pack, but looked absolutely fine. But, Koneko, she had a bag at least three times the size of her, and she looked like she was bored as all fuck.

"Hello, Gremory group!" I smiled.

"Vali, can we put this shit down before anything. Please." Issei mumbled.

"Nope. I'm going to tell you your training schedules then you can put it away."

"Vali. I think he's had a hard morning." Rias chuckled.

"Trust me, after this week, that hike will seem like nothing to him. So the plan is: Bikou, you'll be training with Koneko. Koneko you're already rather fast for a rook and your strength is above average. You two will be training mostly in hand-to-hand combat. It will help you learn how to take down larger opponents, as well as try to take down someone who is much stronger than yourself"

"Alright. I'll make sure the little cat girl learns some shit."

"I'll kick your ass."

"Next, Arthur. You will be training Kiba. Kiba, you are already a rather good swordsman, so just focus on refining technique, and to make sure that you don't grow complacent. You'll also being doing 60 laps around the mansion every morning and evening, to improve both your stamina and above average speed. Along with anything Arthur has planned."

"Sure." Kiba smiled.

"First thing. No getting friendly with the enemy." Arthur deadpanned.

"Hey, why can't I add things to her training." Bikou complained.

""Because you have nothing planned."" Arthur and I said. Bikou responded by pouting at us.

"Le Fay. You will be training with Akeno and Asia. For Akeno refining your natural abilities and maybe a new spell or two. Not to mention, trying to improve your stamina and above average magical pool. For Asia, demonic magic basics. If you grab a hold of it quickly enough, a shield spell or two. Adding anything will be at Le Fay's discretion."

"Okay, sir."

"Oh, this will be fun." Akeno giggled.

"Uh, Please take care of me."

"Kiyome, you will be training Issei. Just try and improve his basic stats. I'll test him and his sacred gear later on. If you have time, try and teach him the basics of demonic magic. Make sure his life is a living hell."

"Alright…"

"Why do I get the living hell treatment. Everyone else's was so specialized, and kinda logical. Then I just get, living hell."

"Because at the moment you have nothing to make you special. You're a jack-of-all-trades, but you aren't strong enough to make that work. And finally, I'll be working with Rias on strategies and such. So, that's the plan I guess. Go do whatever you were going to do."

* * *

The Gremory group went and put their stuff in rooms, as my peerage did very much the same. We'd be staying in an attachment of the main mansion, but trust this was no fucking cabin. It was about the same size as a regular sized house, with two floors.

The girls would be sharing one of the rooms, Bikou called dibs on the couch, so I'm rooming with divided up the room in a civilized manner, in which I jumped on the left bed as soon as we walked in.

After everything was set in order, all of us went to warm-up at our designated training areas. I was waiting in the main living room of the mansion. Rias walked in just about on time.

"So, Rias. Have you thought of what you are going to do?" I said as she sat down beside me.

"Uh, no. I was kinda planning to just wing it. Normally I come up with my best plans under pressure."

"Ok. Next question, how well do you understand your peerage?"

"I know my peerage better than anyone." She declared proudly.

"Well then, how much can Koneko bench for 100 reps consecutively? What is Kiba's average speed after running for 2 hours? How high is Issei's pain threshold? How many large spells can Akeno cast in a row before getting tired? How many people can Asia heal before she needs to rest? Do you know the answers to these questions?"

"I don't." She said sadly. But instantly she perked up with fire in her eyes, "What are you getting at?"

"If you want to wing it, you must know each and every member of your team's absolute limit. The easiest thing to wing, is combat. You can't just wing an incredible trap, or incredible stealth kills. You must set those up, they don't happen naturally. You can't wing winning, well at least winning cleanly. And against Riser, playing cleanly will still end up being sloppy."

"Well, what do you suggest I do?"

"The battlefield has already chosen. Riser didn't care, believing you'd still lose. So, the battlefield was chosen to be something you know better than anyone. Kuoh Academy." Her eyes widened a little as I pulled out a map. "You will study the entire battlefield for the next four days. You will find every ambush point, every choke point, every important objective on this map. And how you plan to take them before Riser does. Along with that you will be watching every single one of Riser's games, every single day, every one of them. Learn how he fights. Learn what he does. Learn how he thinks. Find every one of his weak points. On that fourth day, I'll have stats brought to you about everyone in your peerage's process. For those next four days you'll study those, see how far you can brute force victory. For the last two days you will be re-reading the map and your strategies, taking in the data I bring you to see how well it will work, making sure it counters Riser's style, along with overseeing your group's abilities."

"That's alot of things to take in." I stood up as she looked at me, defeated.

"Well in real combat you have to do it all, without the spoonfed data,so enjoy it while you can. Now start working, I'll be back after I get some coffee." I said walking out

* * *

So, that night we were all sitting around a beautiful grandiose table. We were eating potatoes and onion soup. Apparently, Issei tried demonic magic and just stripped all of the vegetables by accident.

"So, what has everyone learned." I said coldly.

Rias decided to start, "I learned I have no idea of real combat, or the foreplanning required to succeed."

"I learned that my pool of spells is too limited in terms of style. I'm all power, no tricks." Akeno said, sounding disappointed in herself.

"I learned that my style is too counterable. I need to either get faster, learn to be dishonourable, or be more subtle with my thinking ahead." Kiba said coldly. He pushed his finished bowl forward a little, "Now, if you'll all excuse me, I have laps to run."

"Remember to alternate between using the evil piece and not, between laps." Arthur called to him.

"Yes, Arthur-sensei."

"I learned that I may have found another person to rival my sword skills." Arthur said slyly.

"I learned that my spell reserves could be expanded. I ran out of energy halfway into teaching Akeno a new lightning spell. I could only cast it like 20 times before I ran out." Le Fay said sadly.

"It was also an extremely complicated spell. I didn't even know that it existed." Akeno tried to comfort her.

"Please don't be sad, Le Fay-sensei. I also learned that my stamina is really low. I was so drained I couldn't even save a poor little rabbit." Asia said on the verge of tears.

"Uh, ok then. Bikou, Koneko you guys next."

Bikou was still nursing his head with an ice pack, "I learned that I can be overconfident, and that she is really strong for her size."

"Sensei didn't try his best. Had too many openings. No challenge. I can bench press him easily." Koneko said between bites of food.

"I learned that Issei may be the weakest piece, but he is at least super determined to get better. I think he may have to start running laps with Kiba. His demonic power is pitiful though. Not to mention super specific to ero-stuff. He won't be strong enough to solo Riser by the time of the fight." Kiyome said coldly. Issei looked both hurt and disappointed.

"And Issei what did you learn?" I said feigning sweetness.

"I learned that I am the weakest piece. I have nothing that makes me special. My stats are also a lot lower than everyone else's in every single thing."

"You're missing one thing Issei." He looked up at me, a look of surprise gracing his face.

"You have the most potential," Kiyome finished. A small smile appeared on his face, as he finished eating.

"Now that, that's taken care of. I say we all take a break by taking a hot bath." Rias said.

"I agree." Akeno said quickly.

Issei looked super excited. "Issei, you can join us if you wish," Rias teased, "but only if all the girls agree. Don't want anyone feeling uncomfortable."

I don't mind," Akeno giggled.

"I don't mind if it's Issei." Asia added shyly.

"I don't see the big deal," Le Fay said, not understanding the implications. I watched as Arthur's face looked at Issei with pure rage.

""No."" Both Koneko and Kiyome said in unison. Arthur looked absolutely overjoyed, while Issei sunk super hard into his chair, looking defeated.

"Sorry Issei," Rias laughed. She knows that Koneko was an 100% no, Kiyome was like 99% no, Le Fay was 50/50 depending on if she figured out the implications. Despite how smart that girl is, she is the most innocent person possible. Rias was totally cockteasing the boy. And I respect that.

"Guess you're stuck with us." I laughed, mocking Issei's pain.

* * *

So it was now the 3rd last day of the training camp, and I was going to finally get to train with Issei. Kiyome and Rias were standing nearby as to see his progress.

"Ok, Issei. Activate your sacred gear." Doing as I said, it activated. I activated my own in response. I wasn't going to activate the balance breaker, as I want to still have a few secrets when we finally have our true fight. [Boost] it began to go off.

[ _Oh how I missed the sound of the Boosted Gear._ ] [Boost]

" _Don't get all sentimental on me yet, Albion._ " [Boost] "Halfway there, Issei!" I called to him.

[ _Don't worry. I'll be ready to destroy him when the time comes._ ] [Boost]

"Not sure if I can keep this going, Vali." [Boost]

"You better be. How else do you plan on saving Rias. She will be very thankful if you perform." Rias began to blush, while Issei had a lecherous look in his eye. [Boost]

[Explosion] "Ok. Issei, fire off the power." He concentrated the power into a small point in his hand before pushing it out into a giant beam. It flew off into the distance before finally destroying a mountain.

"Wow, did I do that?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure that as long as you keep training, you will be strong enough for this game. Don't take that as a reason to grow complacent. You are still the weakest. Always keep it in the back of your mind, and you have potential to be the strongest." I said. And I began to walk off. Hopefully they could win. The individual pieces were very strong. Rias' macro strategy was strong. But they lacked the coordination that came from experience. The animosity between some of the pieces were also an issue. But their problems can now only be solved inside the game, no amount of training can help that.

* * *

The last few days of the training camp had gone well. Each of Rias' pieces had grown exponentially. They had a very good chance of winning now. But still, I have a nagging feeling of doubt, that somehow, something is going to go wrong.


End file.
